


5 Times Tony Acted Like a Father and 1 Time Penny Acted like a Daughter

by SweetLittleDarling



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Father Figures, Father-Daughter Relationship, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-08-05 18:03:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16372433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetLittleDarling/pseuds/SweetLittleDarling
Summary: 5 times Tony acted like a father to his intern Penny Parker and 1 time Penny returned the favor and acted like a daughter.





	1. Chapter 1

**One: Of Skirts and Bullies**

The beginning of Penny Parker’s junior year brought some sort of unhappy surprises that she hadn’t been expecting. As if it hadn’t been enough that her new friend Liz’s father had been the Vulture, Midtown High School had started imposing some new rules that made Penny wonder if it wouldn’t be better if she had just dropped out.

She was smart, no doubt about that, but Penny had so much on her mind other than studying. She was feeling. . .itchy. Was that the right word to describe her? Or would desperate be a better word?

Either one, she knew that, that was the reason why Mr. Stark had barely called her on any missions or invited her to the lab or whatever. May had probably snitched to him that it was barely October and she had already failed half her classes. In fact, Penny was surprised that she hadn’t received a call from Mr. Stark already.

Penny pulled on her blue plaid skirt, feeling uncomfortable in the short skirt. She relied on jeans most of the time and wearing this skirt made her uncomfortable, but there was one thing that she did like. Wearing a skirt made it easier to ger into her Spider Woman suit.

“Hey,” Someone poked Penny with the back of a pencil. MJ was staring at her with a disbelief look on her face. Her curly brown hair was all over the place and there were several protests signs sticking from her backpack. “I’ve been calling you for the past five minutes. You are so zoned out. What’s on your mind?”

Penny shrugged. “I guess I’m just sleepy.” She had managed to sneak back into the apartment at 3 AM. MJ rolled her eyes. “You can be such an air head,” MJ poked her waist playfully. “Hey are you and Ned helping me protest this whole uniform fiasco after school? Don’t worry, I have enough protest signs for all.”

“Uh, sure.” The last thing that Penny wanted to do was spend her afternoon protesting when she should have been patrolling, but if she didn’t help MJ she would never hear the end of it. Besides she didn’t really care about the uniform rule that much especially when she spent the majority of her time in jeans and oversize sweatshirts.

MJ threw her a brief smile and then went to chase down the science teacher who was trying to avoid her by hiding behind one of the trash cans. Her phone buzzed and she practically raced to grabbed it and she found out that it was a text from Happy.

Her heart jumped a little, Happy never texted her if he could avoid it. In fact he always send her to voicemail or he would ignore her texts. This time he was willingly seeking her out. My how times have changed.

 **Happy-** The boss wants to meet with you at the lab this afternoon. I’ll pick you when you get out of school. Be ready. I don’t want to be keep waiting.

Penny was about to respond when she felt her Spidey senses go off. Before she could even blink she felt something hard hit her across the face. A soccer ball.

Penny heard a familiar laugh and she cringed, Flash. Of course, the man had been determined to make her life a living hell since the beginning.

“Nice face, Penis Parker.” Flash hollered at her as he laughed with his friends. Flash had started calling her Penis Parker in the fourth grade ever since May have given her an unfortunate bowl cut in the third grade that made her look like a boy.

“Penny!” Ned was quickly by her side and flashed a glared at him. “Cut it out Flash!”

“Well, I guess I should stop now that your boyfriend is here,” Flash sneered. “Later Penis.”

“Are you ok?” Ned blabbered. “Maybe we should go to the nurse. Your eye looks black, Penny.”

“It’s nothing,” Penny lied. The truth was that her eye was throbbing, but it didn’t hurt as much as her other “incidents” besides she knew that the black eye would be gone by the end of the day.

Crap, she though Mr. Stark. She was supposed to meet with him this afternoon. Penny fumbled with her phone. Homework. That was always a valid excused. He wouldn’t want Penny to risk her education after all, otherwise Aunt May would have his head. Yes, she needed to avoid him, the last thing that she needed was to answer any more questions.

* * *

 

The rest of the day went by without incident, though Flash did get detention even though he claimed that it had been an accident. Penny avoided him for the rest of the day. She knew that she was more than capable of dealing with Flash, but she didn’t want to deal with him, not to mention that Penny was much stronger than him. It wouldn’t be a fair fight.

Penny hurried outside of Midtown while giving Ned a quick goodbye. She needed to get home and use some of her makeup to hide this black eye before May went to scream at the principle herself. It wasn’t as bad now, it was now more purple than black which to Penny was a major improvement.

“Kid,” Penny flinched. “What the hell happened to your face?” Happy screeched as he looked at Penny as if she were a zombie.

“Happy,” Penny felt weak. “What are you doing here? I told you that I had too much homework.”

Happy shrugged. “Boss asked me to pick you up, he says he hasn’t seen you in weeks. You didn’t answer my question. What happened to your face?”

“I,” Penny stuttered. She wasn’t the best when it came to lying, I fell down their stairs. . .and towards the door. . .and I hit my face against the wall.”

Happy looked like he didn’t believe her, but he also didn’t want to fight with a teenage girl in the middle of the school parking lot. He grabbed her arm. “Let’s go. It’s a long wait to the compound.”

* * *

 

“Hold still will you,” Tony mumbled as he flashed an unbelievably bright light in Penny’s eyes trying not to squint. “I’m trying to make sure that, that bastard didn’t rip your eye out.”

Penny squirmed as she sat in one of Mr. Stark’s chairs while Tony used Dummy as a nursing assistant. Tony pressed something cold against her eye.

“I told you, I fell-“

“Spider Woman fell down a flight of stairs?” Tony asked dryly. “Cut the bull crap please and just so that you know, Happy didn’t fall for that idiotic story either. Now, I’m not going to ask again what the hell happened, Penelope?”

Penny blushed as she looked at her lap. Tony only called her Penelope when he was annoyed with her. Penny didn’t say anything and Tony gave a long suffering sigh as he leaned down so that he could talk to her face to face with her. “Pen, is someone bullying you. Is someone hurting you?”

“No.” her voice squeaked.

“Pen, is someone at school isn’t it?” Tony prompted. “You can tell me. Happy says he found you behind a trash can the other day and now you’re here with this bruise? Is it a boy? Or a girl?”

“It’s a boy.” She finally admitted. “It’s a boy named Flash, making me miserable has been his life’s work.”

Tony snorted, he looked annoyed. “He needs to get a hobby then. Why don’t you just strangle the little weasel.”

Penny shrugged. “I guess I’m just used to it, besides I’m Spider Woman. I can handle a punch, Flash can’t. It’s fine-“

“It’s not fine, Penny.” Tony scowled. “You can’t allow him to do this to you, and what kind of school-“

Penny groaned. “Oh, please don’t go to the school, you’ll just make a big scene out of nothing.”

“This isn’t nothing and perhaps someone needs to make a scene.” He started putting some ointment on her eye. “I am serious Pen, you are a great gal and you might be a crime fighting spider, but you don’t need to be anyone’s punching bag.”

* * *

 

Her eye was much better the following morning and with a bit of concealer Aunt May could hardly tell the difference as she made her way to school. She almost felt happy, she didn’t know if it was because of the conversation that she had with Tony or because she wasn’t going to see Flash until Decathlon practice. Either way she was going to soak in the moment.

Penny stopped short when she saw a flashy car parked in front of the school. It was so new that it basically shined in the morning sun. Penny recognized the license plate.

Oh, no. No. She told him not to meddle in this.

A crowd was gathered around the school cafeteria as Flash was huddled against the wall, while Tony stared him down. Thanks to her hearing ability she was able to heat the last bit of conversation. “. . .If I hear that you are bothering my intern again, I will make it my life’s mission to make sure that even the local community college rejects you and that you’ll end up as a dishwasher for the rest on your life. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir,” Flash was bobbing his head up and down. “Sorry, sir.” Tony smirked.

Tony started walking back toward the car, he noticed Penny gaping at him and he winked at her. _You’re welcome_ he mouthed.


	2. Sniffles and the Flu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your support loves!

**Two: Sniffles and the Flu**

“Whoa what happened to you? You look like you go ran over with a car.”

“You look terrible.”

Penny sniffled as she glared at her two best friends who were looking at her with concern. Couldn’t they hide how terrible she looked for 5 minutes at least. Penny knew that she looked terrible. They didn’t have to rub it in her face. She reached into her purse for some Kleenex so that she could rub her raw nose.

MJ frowned when Penny sneezed several times. “Uh, Parker should you even be in school? Are you that excited about Algebra?”

Penny’s face was flushed bright red and she had dark circles under her eyes and she couldn’t stop sniffling to save her life. She pulled on her tights as if that would help to stop the cold. “No, but I can’t miss any more school. The school already gave me a warning, and I don’t want Aunt May to get into trouble.”

For the past semester she had missed 32 days of school thanks to a combination of Spider Woman injuries and a handful of missions overseas. May had already warned her that if she missed any more schooling she would confiscate the suit.

MJ nodded as she cocked her head to the side. “Why have you’ve missed so much school. You’ve been MIA for a while now.”

“Uh,” Penny and Ned exchanged looks. MJ rolled her eyes. “Fine, don’t tell me. I’ll figure it out.” She grabbed her bag and headed to Art class.

Ned looked at Penny with concern, Penny was leaning against the wall, half asleep. “Are you sure that you don’t want to go home? I’m sure May could pick you up.”

Penny shook her head, hating how much her head throbbed. May was on her 4th 12 hours shift of the week and her aunt was exhausted. The last thing that she wanted to do was bother her. “I’m fine Ned, don’t fuss.”

They headed to their first period art class, the only excited one was Michelle since the only thing Penny and Ned exceled at was drawing stick figures and that wasn’t going to get them A’s anytime soon. Today they were working with watercolors and Annie (the art teacher who refused to be called by her last name or by using the word Ms. like other great artists) was explaining how they should play around with color.

Penny was trying to listen, she really was, but it was so hard to concentrate, not to mention that she just felt hot all over as if her entire body was burning. Her head throbbed and the only thing that she wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep.

Ned started poking her side with a paintbrush. He was slightly frowning at her. “Are you ok?” Penny gulped slightly as she tightened the scarf around her neck. She was so hot, she just wanted to take off all her clothes.

“I’m fine, Ned.” She croaked back. She looked at the clock and she felt as if her heart dropped. Seven hours to go. Annie was passing out water colors and chattering excitedly about all of the wonderful things that they were going to create.

MJ passed her some red paint. Penny looked at the red paint. It was the same shade as Tony’s suit. The same shade of red as the lipstick that May always wore. The same shade as human blood.

Everything was spinning, and she suddenly heard scampering and her classmates hurrying over as everything went black.

* * *

 

She felt something cool pressing against the back of her temple. Penny felt her throat throbbed and it took her a moment for her to realize that her head was currently resting on someone’s lap. “Easy squirt, you have a pretty high fever and we wouldn’t want you to faint again, believe me we don’t need any replay of the incident in the classroom. Rumor has it that it’s all over the school’s Instagram or was it Twitter? Which is more popular?”

She immediately sat up, her cheeks flushing bright pink at the realization that she had been using Tony’s lap as a pillow. Tony would never let her live this down. “Mr. Stark, I am so sorry-“

Tony raised his hand, waving away her apologies. “I don’t want to hear it, now stop looking at me as if you are going to burst into tears. Crying isn’t going to solve anything you know.”

“I don’t want to cry,” she insisted, but even she had to admit that her voice cracked a little. Usually Tony would have teased her even more, but this time he simply looked concerned, she didn’t know which was worst.

Tony pressed a hand against her forehead and gave a low whistle when he realized how hot she felt. “Any reason why you’re in school when you should be in bed? Is school Algebra that exciting?”

She gave a nervous laugh. “I’ve missed too much school already. Wait, why did you come? Why didn’t May, is she-“

“Hold your horses May is fine,” Tony said noticing the panicked look on Penny’s face. “They couldn’t reach her, they said that her phone must have died. Does that usually happen?”

She gave a slow nod, May usually forgot to charge her phone, Penny usually charged it for her, but she had been so sick lately that she usually fell asleep first. “So the school called me,” Tony tried to sound casual, but Penny saw him fidgeting like he usually did when he was nervous. “Apparently, I’m second on the emergency contact list. When did that happened?”

Now it was her turn to fidget. “I don’t know, May didn’t say-“

“Don’t sweat it,” Tony said interrupting her as Happy pulled into Avengers HQ. “I’m just glad that it’s me and not Cap. So do you need help getting up-“

“I’m fine.” She said quickly as she grabbed her school bag and headed towards HQ. It was bad enough that she had fallen asleep on Tony’s lap. Penny was still feeling incredibly tired and what she wanted was to crawl into bed, but for some reason she felt shy and kept fidgeting.

“Your room is down the hallway to the left,” Tony seemed to read her thoughts.

“I’m not sleepy.” She lied.

“Penny, you need to sleep.”

“Can I stay in the living room for just a little while with you?” Tony nodded as they headed towards the living room. Penny curled against one of the couches feelings her muscles throbbing in tiredness. Her eyes fluttered in tiredness as she heard Tony fumble around in the kitchen.

A few minutes later he came back with a cup of tea. He handed it to her. “Here. Drink. It will help your fever.”

“I didn’t know you could make tea.” She quipped.

“Don’t be a smart mouth,” Tony said. “And drink.”

* * *

 

“Sorry, I’m late I brought Thai.” Pepper paused when she saw Penny passed out on the couch and Tony comfortably playing a game on his I-Pad. “What’s wrong? Did-“

“Pep, she’s fine. The school called me when they couldn’t get ahold of May. I brought her to the compound. She is sleeping off that nasty fever that she’s got.”

“I’m surprised that she even went to sleep. You know how shy and self-conscience she can be.”

“Oh, I know, that’s why I dropped a couple of crushed sleeping pills in her tea earlier.’

Pepper glared at him. “You did what?”

“What? It won’t kill her, I’m not an idiot. I knew she wouldn’t sleep if I asked her to, no matter how much I asked, so I took matters into my own hands.”

 

 


	3. Hot Date Part 1

**Three: Hot Date Part 1**

“We haven’t seen Pen-Pen in a while.” Pepper looked up from her I-phone towards Tony who was dazing off in front of the fire. “I hope everything is ok. I haven’t seen her in weeks.”

Tony woke up at the mention of Pepper’s voice. “Who the hell is Pen-Pen? Do you mean, Penny? She’s not a chihuahua, Pepper. Don’t give her cutesy nicknames.”

Pepper looked slightly annoyed as she looked for her coffee cup. “Penny doesn’t mind when I call her that. Besides you didn’t answer me, we haven’t seen her in weeks. Any idea why?” The holidays had just passed and him and Pepper had been in Holland for most of them. Besides a Merry Christmas text from Penny and May a few weeks ago, Tony had not heard anything since then.

Tony frowned that wasn’t like her at all. Usually Penny drove him crazy with her constant calling and texting. He hoped that everything was all right. He checked his phone to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything, but he only saw the Merry Christmas text from two weeks ago.

He hoped that she wasn’t getting sick again. He dialed Happy’s number and Happy answered with a sleepy hello. “Don’t tell me I woke you up.” Tony sounded amused. “It’s 8:30 at night.”

“It’s Sunday,” Happy replied irritably. “I can do whatever I want with my Sunday night. My week doesn’t officially start until tomorrow.”

“Ouch, don’t be so grouchy.” Tony joked, enjoying this. “I won’t take any more of your time, Sleeping Beauty. Quick question any word from Penny that you forgot to forward to me.”

“Nope,” Happy yawned. “Everything is quiet on my end, she has your personal phone number. She usually bothers you, I only got a Happy Holiday text from her.” He perked out. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“Nope G.I. Joe. I’ll handle it. She’s probably hanging out her with her dorky friends and sexy aunt. Night night.” Tony turned to Pepper. “Happy hasn’t heard from her either.”

Pepper took a sip of her coffee. “I didn’t mean to worry you, Honey. I was just wondering. Perhaps Penny is just out with her friends.”

“Or lying in a ditch somewhere.” Tony mumbled under his breath. He checked to see if there was any news regarding Spider Woman, but he found out nothing. He dialed May’s number and May answered right away.

“Hello, Tony this is a surprise.”

He cleared his throat. “Hi May, how were your holidays?” May gave the usual response. “Hey, can I speak to Penny for a minute? I want to wish you a happy holiday and what not. She’s been MIA recently no doubt hanging out with her dorky friends.”

May sounded confused. “Didn’t Penny tell you? I had to leave for Wisconsin two days ago. My great Aunt Milda got sick and I came for a few days to take care of her. Since Penny is back in school I couldn’t bring her along.”

Tony’s head started spinning. Penny was definitely lying in a ditch somewhere. “It must have slipped her mind. Thanks, May. I hope Aunt Milda feels better.” He hung up the phone and called Penny’s cell phone and the house phone, but no answer. “Friday, can you track down Penny’s location? Is she wearing the suit?”

“She is not, Mr. Stark. The suit is in her backpack.” Friday said. “She is in Queens in the Parkview Apartment buildings.” Tony nodded as he grabbed his sneakers.

Pepper frowned. “Tony, aren’t you blowing this a little out of proportion? Penny is a good girl, I’m sure that she is not doing anything that is going to do her any harm.”

Tony snorted, trying to hide his nervousness. “Well, better safe than sorry.”

* * *

 

Penny felt as Aaron Thomas pressed his hand against her thigh and slightly under her uniform skirt. She felt a chill go down her spine as she let out a nervous giggle. She couldn’t actually believe she was in Aaron Thomas’s room. She had, had a crush on him for the longest time and she was actually in his room. Hallelujah.

Sure they were supposed to be studying for a Biology test together, but those were just details. It was great that May was out of the state right now, otherwise she would have a coronary. May had two rules, 1) No stupid things that could end up with her being hurt and 2) No boys without adult supervision.

“You’re very cute.” Aaron said smoothly. They were sitting down on Aaron’s bed while Penny was trying not to burst into nervous giggles.

“Thank you, I wasn’t even sure that you noticed me-“ Penny’s sentence was left uncomplete as Aaron gave her a kiss with his hands resting on her waist. His hands rummaged around her Midtown sweatshirt.

Penny couldn’t believe that she was doing this, kissing a boy while his hands rummaged under her Save the Planet T-shirt. It was so un-Penny like it was enough to make her sick.

Penny and Aaron were kissing when suddenly they each heard a loud bang and they both flinched as the banging got louder. “What’s that the door?” Aaron screeched. “My parents are going to kill me! Who the fuck did that?”

Penny quickly smoothed down her skirt as both she and Aaron went outside where they saw the 6ft statue of Iron Man staring them down. “Mr. Stark,” she managed to say. What the hell was he doing here?

The helmet opened and Tony stared her down, not looking the least bit pleased. “Are you hurt? Why haven’t you answered the phone?” he stared at Aaron. “And who is this midget here?”

“Aaron. He’s my friend. My phone died.” She blurted out one lie after the other. She hoped that she didn’t have “sex hair” even though she hadn’t even had sex.

There was an awkward silence until Tony said in a scarily calm voice. “Penny, get your stuff. We’re leaving.”

* * *

 

Neither of them had said much as Tony parked his car in front of HQ as both of them kept fuming. “What the hell were you thinking?” Tony finally snapped, breaking the silence.

“What were you even doing there?” Penny snarked back. “No one called you, it was absolutely none of your business-“

“Watch it, young lady.” He snapped. “Chasing you down isn’t exactly my idea of a fun time either, especially when I just found out that May has been out of town for the past few days. Does your lovely aunt know you’ve been hanging out with Jason?”

“Aaron.” She snapped, feeling annoyed. Honestly, Tony was treating her like she was selling drugs at the local park. “And we were just studying. We’re friends.”

“You’re a fifteen year old hanging out with a horny fifteen year old on a weekend night with no parental supervision,” each word that Tony spoke was basically dripping with sarcasm. “And you’re telling me that nothing was going on besides good ol’ fashion studying.”

Penny’s cheeks felt hot with embarrassment. “Think whatever the hell you want, I don’t care-“

“Penelope-“

Penny answered with slamming the door as she went inside HQ. She nearly bumped into Steve who was sipping coffee. “Pen, what are you doing here?”

Penny didn’t answer as she angrily continued going to her room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, loves!


	4. Hot Date Part 2

**Four: Hot Date Part II**

“You’re acting like she committed a crime,” Natasha said calmly as she played chess with Bruce who was sitting across from her while Steve was trying to watch television. Tony was sitting by the kitchen counter angrily making coffee.

It had been four hours since Penny had arrived at HQ and slammed the door in Tony’s face. He had been trying to reach Aunt May, but with no avail, she might as well be staying in Siberia.

“Nat is right,” Bruce said as he looked up, he looked slightly amused. That bastard.

“She’s a child,” Steve frowned for once taking Tony’s side. Tony never thought he would see the day when this happened. “She should be around adult supervision and not be allowed to be alone and surrounded by boys until she is eighteen.” Nat rolled her eyes and murmured something in Russian that sounded condescending.

“But they weren’t doing anything right?” Bruce asked with a raised eyebrow. “They were just talking right?”

“Penny said they were ‘studying’,” Tony said as he wrinkled his nose. “Which is code for fu-“

“Please don’t be crude,” Steve scolded turning a delightful shade of pink. “I don’t need to hear about what the baby Avenger is possibly doing after hours.”

“Teenagers have sex whether it is their bedroom or under the bleachers,” Bruce said calmly and Tony wanted to strangle him because of his calm demeanor. “Either way we should teach Penny safe sex and not avoid the conversation all together. Just talk to her, Tony I’m sure that Penny would open a up a bit more if you didn’t freak out over every little thing.”

“I do not freak out.” Tony snapped putting his coffee cup on the table and nearly breaking it.

They stared at him, even Mr. Captain America looked baffled. Tony felt himself blushing, since when had he become such a dad. It was so embarrassing, he might as well buy himself a cardigan and a pair of loafers and call it a day.

“Fine, maybe a little, excuse me if I don’t want MTV to do a superhero version of Fifteen and Pregnant.”

“It’s Sixteen and Pregnant.” Natasha corrected.

Tony ignored her as he went down the corridor in search of Penny. He didn’t think he could stand the preaching any longer and besides they kind of had a point whether he liked to admit it or not. Penny was growing up, she wouldn’t remain a child forever.

He frowned as he checked her room. Not there. He checked the arcade, the training center, and his third favorite living room, but she was not there either. What the hell? Where could she be?

Tony ran a hand through his short, spiky hair. “Friday, any idea where our beloved Penny Parker is at the moment?”

“Sir she is not in HQ.” Was the cheerful reply from Friday.

A paused followed by a screech. “What?” Friday repeated the message which only irritated Tony more. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me, Fri? She wasn’t supposed to escape.”

“She didn’t escape,” Friday said calmly. “She went out of the door like a normal guest would. Penny stole a bike from the garage and pedaled all the way to Queens.”

Tony groaned. Great, so while Tony was freaking out Penny had pedaled to see her boy toy. Awesome, he just hoped that she didn’t get knocked up. If that happened May would strangle them both. Besides what would she do with multiple Spider babies?

* * *

 

After basically stalking every teenage girl that looked even remotely like Penny, Tony finally found her in a place that he never though he would have found her. In a park.

Penny never went to the park, she avoided everything that was even close to nature. She almost broke out in hives when Steve offered to take her hiking. He found Penny sitting in one of the park benches looking down on her lap.

Her eyes were swollen and she looked like she had been crying. All of the anger seemed to disappear, and he could feel his heart swell up with something that he was becoming familiar with. Pity.

He sat down next to her and she sniffed until Tony managed to find a crumbled piece of tissue in his pocket and he silently thanked Pepper for giving him a hefty supply of klennex hidden in various pockets just in case an anxiety attacked hit.

“Here,” Tony said as he handed her the tissue. “Blow.”

She silently did as she was told. “I’m sorry that I stole your bike.”

Tony shrugged as if he hadn’t spent the last hour running around Queens like a crazy person. “I have others. I’m surprised that you even know how to ride a bike.”

Penny chuckled. “Uncle Ben taught me when I was little, before. . .” she trailed off awkwardly. “Anyway, I’m sorry I was being such a brat.”

“Don’t sweat it, kid that seems to be your specialty. Just know that if I end up in an early grave it will all be your fault.” He leaned back against the cold plastic. “Now why are you crying like you just saw The Notebook.”

She choked on her laugh. “You’ll laugh and then you’ll tell me ‘I told you so’”

“Of course, otherwise what’s the point. Now spill.”

“You know Aaron?”

“The guy who seems obsessed with removing your skirt, yes.”

“Well, I came looking for him, that’s why I stole the bike,” Penny bit on her lip. “I saw him with Cindy Li at the movie theater and Monica Jacobs at the movies.”

The I-told-you-so was at the tip of his tongue, but Tony thought it was better not to kick Penny while she was already feeling down. Besides if someone needed their ass kicked it was that Aaron boy.

“Out of the kindest of my heart I will refrain from saying that.” Tony said. “Do you want me to have him killed?”

“No. Maybe. I just feel so stupid.”

“You are not stupid.” Tony said firmly, “This has happened to everyone at some point or another.”

“Has this happened to you before?”

“Well, for me I was Aaron at some point. But now I’m a changed man thanks to Pepper.” Tony said quickly, Penny rolled her eyes. “Look how about I take you to a drink to help you forget this horrible day.”

“I’m not twenty-one.”

“Hey, you’re legal in Europe. . .I think.”


End file.
